In Defence of Separatism

By Susan Hawthorne

In Defence of Separatism is a timely book. When it was first written in 1976, although it was an important subject of conversation among many feminists it was not welcomed by academics or publishers. When a political group wants to strategise so that its members can arrive at agreed-on political tactics and ideas, they call for, and create, separate spaces. These might be in coffee shops, in community centres, in one another's homes or in semi-public spaces such as workers clubs, even cinemas. When the proletariat was rebelling, they did not ask the capitalists and aristocracy to join them (even if a few did); when the civil rights movement started it was not thanks to the ideas and politics of white people (even though some whites joined to support the cause); when the women's liberation movement sprang into life, it was women joining together to fight against their oppression. The difference is that women are supposed to love men.Through careful argument, Susan Hawthorne takes us through the ideas which are central to her argument. She analyses the nature of power, oppression, domination and institutions and applies these to heterosexuality, rape and romantic love. She concludes with a call for women, all women no matter their sexuality, to have separate spaces so they can work together to change the world and end patriarchy.This 2019 edition includes a Preface, Afterword and additional commentary in italicised footnotes that bring the reader up to date on changes, developments and controversies in feminist theory.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Sep 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781925950052

Book preview

Susan Hawthorne is the author of four books of non-fiction, three works of fiction and nine collections of poetry as well ten edited anthologies. Bibliodiversity (2014) has been translated into five languages, Wild Politics (2002) has been published in India, and The Spinifex Quiz Book (1993) has been translated into two languages. She has been active in the women’s liberation movement since 1973, was involved in Melbourne’s Rape Crisis Centre and performed as an aerialist in two women’s circuses. Her two most recent books are The Sacking of the Muses (2019, poetry) and Dark Matters: A novel (2017). She has taught English to Arabic-speaking women, worked in Aboriginal education and has taught across a number of subject areas in universities. She is Adjunct Professor in the School of Humanities at James Cook University, Townsville. She was the winner of the 2017 Penguin Random House Best Achievement in Writing in the Inspire Awards for her work increasing people’s awareness of epilepsy and the politics of disability.

Other books by Susan Hawthorne

non-fiction

Bibliodiversity: A Manifesto for Independent Publishing (2014)

Wild Politics: Feminism, Globalisation and Bio/diversity (2002)

The Spinifex Quiz Book: A Book of Women’s Answers (1993)

fiction

Dark Matters: A Novel (2017)

Limen (2013, verse novel)

The Falling Woman (1992/2004)

poetry

The Sacking of the Muses (2019)

Lupa and Lamb (2014)

Valence: Considering War through Poetry and Theory (2011, chapbook)

Cow (2011)

Earth’s Breath (2009)

Unsettling the Land (with Suzanne Bellamy, 2008, chapbook)

The Butterfly Effect (2005)

Bird and Other Writings on Epilepsy (1999)

The Language in My Tongue (1993)

anthologies

Lesbian Poets and Writers: Live Encounters (2018)

Horse Dreams: The Meaning of Horses in Women’s Lives (with Jan Fook and Renate Klein, 2004)

Cat Tales: The Meaning of Cats in Women’s Lives (with Jan Fook and Renate Klein, 2003)

September 11, 2001: Feminist Perspectives (with Bronwyn Winter, 2002)

Cyberfeminism: Connectivity, Critique and Creativity (with Renate Klein, 1999)

Car Maintenance, Explosives and Love and Other Lesbian Writings (with Cathie Dunsford and Susan Sayer, 1997)

Australia for Women: Travel and Culture (with Renate Klein, 1994)

Angels of Power and Other Reproductive Creations (with Renate Klein, 1991)

The Exploding Frangipani: Lesbian Writing from Australia and New Zealand (with Cathie Dunsford, 1990)

Moments of Desire: Sex and Sexuality by Australian Feminist Writers (with Jenny Pausacker, 1989)

Difference: Writings by Women (1985)

First published by Spinifex Press, 2019

Spinifex Press Pty Ltd

PO Box 5270, North Geelong, VIC 3215, Australia

PO Box 105, Mission Beach, QLD 4852, Australia

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Copyright © Susan Hawthorne, 1976, 1990, 2019

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of the book.

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Cover design by Deb Snibson, MAPG

Typesetting by Helen Christie, Blue Wren Books

Typeset in Utopia

Printed by McPherson’s Printing Group

ISBN: 9781925950045 (paperback)

ISBN: 9781925950052 (eBook)

For women with courage

Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface to the 2019 edition

Statement of the Argument

1Introduction

1.1Power

1.2Oppression

1.3Domination

1.4Institutions

2Things Peculiar to Women’s Oppression

2.1Heterosexuality

2.2Rape

2.3Romantic Love

3Strategies

3.1Separatism

3.2Lesbian Feminism

3.3Critiques of Separatism and Responses

Afterword

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

1976

This text was originally submitted as an Honours thesis in Philosophy at La Trobe University. I would like to thank my supervisor Anna Cushan for helpful criticisms and suggestions through the year. I would also like to thank Sue Ivanyi for the many valuable discussions we have had in various aspects of the thesis. Thanks also go to Helen Lang, Lin Cooper, Amanda Ressom and Jen Feret; and to Gay Dunn for typing the original thesis.

2019

In 2012, Kathleen Barry commented on the text and assisted in helping me think through some of the challenges. My thanks to all the feminists who have contributed to the debates over more than forty years and to those who continue the struggle now. Thanks to Deb Snibson and Helen Christie for fast work on the cover and text respectively. To Estelle Disch for her beautiful cover art. And to all at Spinifex Pauline Hopkins, Maralann Damiano, Rachael McDiarmid and Caitlin Roper.

I would like to thank many courageous radical feminists who had stood up to protest proposed changes in the law. This has been a particularly vicious fight in English speaking countries. A significant number of women’s organisations and individuals have engaged with these important but difficult arguments, including with gung-ho governments changing laws—laws that erase women’s life experiences and deny women access to spaces of our own—almost always without consultation with women.

To Renate Klein, I cannot express enough thanks for the years of conversations. Without our intense and ongoing discussions about everything under the sun over more than three decades, my life would be much the poorer.

Preface 2019

It’s a long time since this thesis was first written. Since 1976 I have benefited from conversations with numerous feminists on this subject: some friendly, some not so.

When I wrote this thesis, I was punished academically for it. It was departmental policy to choose the examiners: one was my supervisor, the second was a philosopher with whom I had argued about rape. He told me that being raped was no different from being mugged. The low grade I was given was very likely due to him. It was sufficiently low to ensure I would not be able to continue to postgraduate level in philosophy. This was forty years before #MeToo, my chances of having it reconsidered were zilch. I had no witness to the conversation about rape and he was popular in the department. I attempted to have it published in feminist journals, but was unsuccessful. In 1982, there was an international call for papers on the topic of separatism. I heard about it and sent it off to Sarah Hoagland and Julia Penelope. I heard nothing. Some time later I heard that the anthology For Lesbians Only was to be published but that no essays from Australia were to be included. The only essays accepted were from North America and France. This has long struck me as an unfortunate basis for accepting work for an anthology. Either one is clear from the start about the parameters, or else the editors should make (often difficult) decisions based on quality. Perhaps my essay would still not have been published in that important anthology, but at least it would not have left the Australian lesbians who had sent their work off in good faith reeling from this rationale. In 1990, I was lucky enough to get a shortened and edited version published in Feminist Knowledge Reader (edited by Sneja Gunew, Routledge, London). That version was rather eviscerated and considerably shorter. In 2019, that version will be published in Oslobodjenje lezbejki: feministicki tekstovi (1968–1980): Lesbian Liberation: Feminist Articles (1968–1980) edited by Nela Pamukovic, Zagreb, Croatia and Milos Urosevic, Belgrade, Serbia. This